San Francisco Street Food Festival 2011

So yesterday was the "food event of the year in San Francisco," or at least that's what several blogs were saying leading up to the 3rd Annual San Francisco Street Food Festival.



This food event dedicated to the celebration of street food -- from established food trucks and local restaurants to newcomers working under the festival sponsor LaCocina -- takes place in the Mission neighborhood, on Folsom Street. This year the block party atmosphere extended two blocks, running from 22nd to 26th Streets.



The promotional wheels for the festival were in full gear prior to the one-day event, with the promise of more vendors and more space. So you know what that means? Major clusterfuck.



It's like the tradition of the street festival as people created lines from the booths on the residential-sized streets and curving onto the sidewalks. (As an added treat, several spots along the new areas of Folsom between 22nd and 24th stank of urine, making standing in line in those areas a real test of my foodie reserve.)



Despite the crowds, unorganized lines, and Mission street smells (I'm not talking about the grilling), the festival is a wonderful way to celebrate the city's love affair with street food. (I just agree with a few people who I chatted in line as some suggested that the crowds allowed into the blocked off areas be limited to avoid overcrowding.)



So I got there early when the festival began at 11 a.m. and made a beeline to Azalina's Malayasian because I bought into the early promos, with many raving about the Penang Curry Bomb, a chicken curry bun that's deep-fried to make the bun crispy. And while I don't eat deep-fried foods, I couldn't resist everyone's description. This actually was the furthest from the bomb, mostly because the bun was leaking oil. Just touching it got my fingers glistening with oil. I ate one of these two buns and had to pass on the other. The curry itself was a complex spice, a bit on the spicy side.



Wandering around checking out the other booths, I landed at Commonwealth, which served up a delicious and refreshing watermelon gazpacho and this lamb cheeks skewers over quinoa salad. Both items were perfectly done, and really raised the definition of street food.



There were several visiting food trucks from other parts of the country, including the famous Nom Nom food struck from Los Angeles, which was featured in the first season of the Food Network's "The Great Food Truck Race." Because I was early, there wasn't much of a line, but I had just had that Penang Curry Bomb so wasn't ready for Nom Nom's pork banh mi. Big mistake, because just an hour later, this is what the line looked like...



Hands down this had to be the longest line for any vendor at the event. So I didn't bother getting something from Nom Nom. Luckily, Nom Nom opened a food truck in San Francisco a few weeks ago, so I knew I could try Nom Nom's banh mi on another day without the crowds.



Saw this sign with such sage advice.



Last year the food festival had a few streets south of Folsom set aside for a line of food trucks and a dedicated dessert area. I actually liked that concept, but they didn't repeat that this year. But they did take over the courtyard of a nearby school and I did like checking out the food booths set up there along with the cool murals. What a fun setting.



One of the booths in that special section was A16, the popular Marina-area restaurant. I got its duroc pork meatball (nice texture, good sauce) and its miniature cannoli with chocolate and pistachio (crunchy but the cream inside seemed a bit too thick).



As I continued to wander amongst the crowd, I bumped into my food blogging buddy Foodhoe, who had just stood in line for 25 minutes for this plate of arepa from The Arepa Lady. Foodhoe saw the Arepa Lady (who's from New York) featured on the Food Network and wanted to try her arepa, but it turned out to taste like a big pancake and Foodhoe was a bit disappointed, especially after standing in line for 25 minutes.





I asked Foodhoe if she had any interesting food items so far, and she took me to the Don Bugito booth where she said she had this sweet toffee crisped mealworms. The mealworms were sold as toppings on vanilla ice cream in some kind of weird dessert. I did try one mealworm, which tasted like toasted nuts because they were so smokey and crispy, but I didn't feel like standing in line for a vanilla mealworm sundae. Still, it was the most interesting food item so far.



Foodhoe and I ate a few other items and were nearing our full factor, so we decided to split the porchetta sandwich from Flour + Water, another Mission restaurant. I enjoyed the sandwich, which had some nice crispy skin bits along with the tender porchetta meat. If I included Flour + Water's version in my recent porchetta taste off, it probably would have ranked No. 3.



There were several booths with colorful uniforms, but I have to give the award to most creative costumes to the guys at the Seoul Sausage Co. who dressed up in T-shirts with the words "Fear the Sausage," a play on the San Francisco Giants' motto "Fear the Beard" (for closer Brian Wilson and his famous beard).



There were several deep-fried foods that I avoided, including this platter of Scotch eggs, which is a whole hard boiled egg encased in beef (or was it pork?) and then deep-fried.



Another popular item that sounded unusual was this Elote corn from Los Cilantros. Foodhoe was more adventurous to try this grilled corn that's brushed with butter and then dipped in cheese. The cheese smelled like parmesan, so the saltiness actually seemed like a nice accent to sweet corn.



I stuck with safer fare, like this scrumptious Thai iced tea from Lers Ros.



Since I was winding down, I went looking for dessert and wanted to check out these jello creations from Sweets Collection. Owner Rosa Rodriguez uses traditional Mexican techniques to create these extraordinary gelatin cups. They were almost too pretty to eat.



This year's Street Food Festival didn't seem to have as much pop as last year. I think it was because, now in its third year, I'm starting to see the same booths, offering the same things. (How many steamed buns can Slanted Door sell every year?) I know there were some new booths, but they offered usual fare or lots of fried stuffs. Still, it was perfect weather for a street fair, with some moments of bright sun to warm us up, but moments of San Francisco overcast skies to give us a break and keep us cool. So in other words, a little bit of everything for everyone.

Off the Grid: Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley

The bulk of the food truck movement has been happening in San Francisco, and I and many other East Bay foodies have been waiting for the food trucks to roll into our neighborhoods. While there are a few sporadic sightings, none have taken the shape of the various Off the Grid gatherings in the city.



But earlier this summer, OTG made it to the East Bay, fittingly parking in Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto. This being Berkeley, OTG arrived only after negotiating with nearby businesses (which includes Saul's Deli, the Cheeseboard, Gregoire, and all the food places in Epicurious Garden). OTG, the Berkeley version, runs every Wednesday from 5 to 9 p.m. on a block of Shattuck Avenue between Rose and Vine Streets.



I dropped by last Wednesday to check out the crowds and the food trucks. It was actually smaller than I expected, but still gathered about seven or eight food trucks. As you can expect, the crowd was a mix of families and UC Berkeley students.



I like to check out food trucks I've never heard before and while there were a few familiar faces, there were a few I haven't tried like this one called Fins on the Hoof. They had a few fish dishes, some fried, some not. But I wasn't in a fishy mood.



I love the grassroots signs of 510Burgers. But a lot of the items looked, of course, like a lot of red meat for me, so I kept on searching.



In a way to keep the area businesses in people's minds, this guy from Saul's Deli was passing out free pickles that were quite popular, especially for those waiting in the long lines.



I ended up getting food at 3-Sum Eats, a food truck I've never tried and which happened to have one of the longest lines at OTG. This truck is by Chef Ryan Scott, who once cooked at Myth Cafe and Mission Beach Cafe and is probably more known for being a cheftestant on Top Chef. Along with catering and a new brunch pop up, Chef Scott rolls out this food truck. But he wasn't manning the truck on this night.



I got the pulled pork Cubana, which was incredible. Here's why: it was PACKED with tender pulled pork. This Cubana was huge. The sliver of ham was almost ridiculous on top of the pile of pulled pork. The oddly pale yellow sauce was a poblano aioli, and I just enjoyed the nicely toasted bun and combination of the pork, aioli, and pickled peppers. The sandwich, only $8, really filled me up.



Which makes this photo look odd, considering how full I was from the Cubana. But 3-Sum Eats also makes home-made Twinkies, and I had to try them because Twinkies were my favorite growing up until I realized how much saturated fat they had. But since these were home-made, they didn't need any preservatives. It's sold two for $3, and it tasted great but I felt the texture was more cake-like than Twinkie-like. I remember Twinkies being lighter, almost like sponge cake. Still, these were good, especially the vanilla buttercream filling.





Despite being full, I felt I had to try one more thing, and that's how I ended up at the Taco Guys' truck. Even though I'm not a fan of soft tacos, I was intrigued by its special taco made with lamb with a Moroccan twist.



The taco had amazingly tender lamb with cucumber, yogurt and red onions. It worked well together although a bit difficult to eat. Still, this is street food at its finest so I made do.



North Berkeley is still a bit of a trek for me from Oakland, but it was worth checking out. As I walked to BART, I noticed that many of the nearby restaurants in the Gourmet Ghetto was bustling for a Wednesday night, so it didn't look like the food trucks were stealing away business. Everyone seemed to be living happily side by side. Can I get a round of cumbaya, everybody?

Temescal Street Fair 2011 in Oakland

I haven't had a chance to get out to many street fairs this summer because of my recent travels, but I couldn't skip the annual Temescal Street Fair because it's one of the neighborhoods near my Oakland home.

I actually lucked out because the street fair was originally scheduled for early June when I was in Honolulu for my niece's graduation. But the fair got rained out and it was postponed till today, and I almost forgot about it. Luckily I went to the Temescal farmers' market this morning and on my way home I noticed the street closure from 45th to 51st Streets.

So I returned in the afternoon to check out the fair, which seems to have gotten bigger over the years. There were a lot more activities for the kids (it really is a big family affair) and with the growth in restaurants on Telegraph Avenue, there were a lot more interesting food booths at the fair.

Guerrilla Grub is a street cart that was almost selling out of its sloppy Joe's (including a vegan version) when I got there in the late afternoon. I like the T-shirt.

The booth with the longest line was, of course, Lanesplitter's Pizza, which were selling slices and beer.

They were just grabbing slices from boxes of pre-made pizzas.

Colorful paella from Barlata, which was selling it for $5 a plate. What a deal.

You can't have a fair without cotton candy, which was being sold from a table in front of the Mixing Bowl.

Even Bakesale Betty and its signature iron board tables were out in full force. And that's a big deal because it's normally closed on Sundays. But I'm sure they couldn't resist feeding the crowds its fried chicken sandwiches and strawberry shortcakes.

Bites on Broadway in Oakland

Last Friday night kicked off "Bites on Broadway," Oakland's version of the now-established food truck movement.

Not only was I excited about a kind of "Off the Grid" in Oakland, but it's literally one block away from my apartment in the Rockridge/Temescal neighborhood of North Oakland. Bites on Broadway was created by community organizer and foodie Karen Hester, who wanted to help revitalize Oakland's Broadway.

Initially, the event was promoted to take over the front lawn of the Oakland Tech high school on Broadway and 45th, which would have been a prominent spot along Broadway. But when I walked over, I didn't see anything and worried that I got the date wrong. Then I looked down 45th and saw two or three trucks parked on the side of the school on the street.


Five vendors made it for the inaugural Bites on Broadway: El TacoBike, Fist of Flour, Go Streatery, Sue's Sassy Pies, and Tina's Tamales. People started lining up and people had to find places to eat on the school steps or along the wall because the grass was totally muddy from the week's earlier rain. Having the event on the side really made it seem like a pop up event, and supposedly the school wouldn't allow an event on the front lawn. (What is this? Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution?)

After giving a quick once-over of the five vendors, I decided to stand in line for food at Go Streatery, who was serving up pulled pork sandwiches, salads, and oxtails with grits. Go Streatery had the longest line at the time, but I was patient and was rewarded with this amazing bowl of oxtails ($8.50).

The dish was beautifully presented with heirloom baby carrots on top of the oxtails. It really looked like a dish you'd find at a restaurant. The oxtails were tender, falling off the bone and had a nice flavor. It may not have a lot of complexity, but it was hearty and a great Friday night dinner. (I also got a cup of lavendar lemonade, $2.)

After enjoying my oxtails, more and more people started to arrive and the lines got longer but I wanted to try something else. So I got in line at Fist of Flour for its pizzas. As I waited, I saw more people leaving because some of the other trucks started to run out of food by 7 p.m. (the event started at 5:30 p.m.). I think the lines were long because so many people wanted to check out the food trucks and there weren't enough of them dishing out grub.

The organizers set up some games for the kids, but that wasn't enough to really keep people busy as they waited for food. Eventually, Fist of Flour became the only truck left with food for sale, which made my line long and slow. I actually stood in that line for close to 1.5 hours. I know, crazy, but sadly I had nothing else to do on a Friday night and it's like an extra innings baseball game when you're already invested and you can't leave.

I eventually got half a pizza (they made a meat version with ham, cheese, mushrooms, and arugula) for $8 and walked back home to eat it while watching the Giants game. It was chewy with a few crispy edges, with a nice flavor in the sauce. Was it worth the 1.5-hour wait? Probably not, but like one woman said in line, "it's all for the experience."

I hope the people behind Bites on Broadway have learned from this first experience, and hopefully they can get a better location more fitting for an event instead of squeezed on the side of the street. Bites on Broadway was promoted to be a weekly Friday night event for the summer, but I wonder how successful it'll be considering several people left looking disappointed or rejected. It's going to take a lot of good word of mouth to get these people back.

For me, it's easy for me to check in on this food truck event because it's so close to my home. Here's hoping that it improves and continues because these food trucks deserve a solid audience.